never have more than six lamps burning unless we are holding a reception.”
“I think it looks so cheerful,” said the Duke, looking round on his handiwork with a beaming smile of satisfaction. “But where are the cars? Jean seems a deuce of a time bringing them round. Does he expect us to go to the garage through this rain? We’d better hurry him up. Come on; you’ve got a good carrying voice.”
He caught the millionaire by the arm, hurried him through the outer hall, opened the big door of the chateau, and said: “Now shout!”
The millionaire looked at him, shrugged his shoulders, and said: “You don’t beat about the bush when you want anything.”
“Why should I?” said the Duke simply. “Shout, my good chap—shout!”
The millionaire raised his voice in a terrific bellow of “Jean! Jean! Firmin! Firmin!”
There was no answer.
CHAPTER VII
THE THEFT OF THE MOTOR-CARS
The night was very black; the rain pattered in their faces.
Again the millionaire bellowed: “Jean! Firmin! Firmin! Jean!”
No answer came out of the darkness, though his bellow echoed and re-echoed among the out-buildings and stables away on the left.
He turned and looked at the Duke and said uneasily, “What on earth can they be doing?”
“I can’t conceive,” said the Duke. “I suppose we must go and hunt them out.”
“What! in this darkness, with these burglars about?” said the millionaire, starting back.
“If we don’t, nobody else will,” said the Duke. “And all the time that rascal Lupin is stealing nearer and nearer your pictures. So buck up, and come along!”
He seized the reluctant millionaire by the arm and drew him down the steps. They took their way to the stables. A dim light shone from the open door of the motor-house. The Duke went into it first, and stopped short.
“Well, I’ll be hanged!” he cried.
Instead of three cars the motor-house held but one—the hundred horse-power Mercrac. It was a racing car, with only two seats. On them sat two figures, Jean and Firmin.
“What are you sitting there for? You idle dogs!” bellowed the millionaire.
Neither of the men answered, nor did they stir. The light from the lamp gleamed on their fixed eyes, which stared at their infuriated master.
“What on earth is this?” said the Duke; and seizing the lamp which stood beside the car, he raised it so that its light fell on the two figures. Then it was clear what had happened: they were trussed like two fowls, and gagged.
The Duke pulled a penknife from his pocket, opened the blade, stepped into the car and set Firmin free. Firmin coughed and spat and swore. The Duke cut the bonds of Jean.
“Well,” said the Duke, in a tone of cutting irony, “what new game is this? What have you been playing at?”
“It was those Charolais—those cursed Charolais!” growled Firmin.
“They came on us unawares from behind,” said Jean.
“They tied us up, and gagged us—the swine!” said Firmin.
“And then—they went off in the two cars,” said Jean.
“Went off in the two cars?” cried the millionaire, in blank stupefaction.
The Duke burst into a shout of laughter.
“Well, your dear friend Lupin doesn’t do things by halves,” he cried. “This is the funniest thing I ever heard of.”
“Funny!” howled the millionaire. “Funny! Where does the fun come in? What about my pictures and the coronet?”
The Duke laughed his laugh out; then changed on the instant to a man of action.
“Well, this means a change in our plans,” he said. “I must get to Paris in this car here.”
“It’s such a rotten old thing,” said the millionaire. “You’ll never do it.”
“Never mind,” said the Duke. “I’ve got to do it somehow. I daresay it’s better than you think. And after all, it’s only a matter of two hundred miles.” He paused, and then said in an anxious tone: “All the same I don’t like leaving you and Germaine in the chateau—these rogues have probably only taken the cars out of reach just to prevent your getting to Paris. They’ll leave them in some field and come back.”
“You’re not going to leave us behind. I wouldn’t spend the night in the chateau for a million francs. There’s always the train,” said the millionaire.
“The train! Twelve hours in the train—with all those changes! You don’t mean that you will actually go to Paris by train?” said the Duke.
“I do,” said the millionaire. “Come along—I must go and tell Germaine; there’s no time to waste,” and he hurried off to the chateau.
“Get the lamps lighted, Jean, and make sure that the tank’s full. As for the engine, I must humour it and trust to luck. I’ll get her to Paris somehow,” said the Duke.
He went back to the chateau, and Firmin followed him.
When the Duke came into the great hall he found Germaine and her father indulging in recriminations. She was declaring that nothing would induce her to make the journey by train; her father was declaring that she should. He bore down her opposition by the mere force of his magnificent voice.
When at last there came a silence, Sonia said quietly: “But is there a train? I know there’s a train at midnight; but is there one before?”
“A time-table—where’s a time-table?” said the millionaire.
“Now, where did I see a time-table?” said the Duke. “Oh, I know; there’s one in the drawer of that Oriental cabinet.” Crossing to the cabinet, he opened the drawer, took out the time-table, and handed it to M. Gournay-Martin.
The millionaire took it and turned over the leaves quickly, ran his eye down a page, and said, “Yes, thank goodness, there is a train. There’s one at a quarter to nine.”
“And what good is it to us? How are we to get to the station?” said Germaine.
They looked at one another blankly. Firmin, who had followed the Duke into the hall, came to the rescue.
“There’s the luggage-cart,” he said.
“The luggage-cart!” cried Germaine contemptuously.
“The very thing!” said the millionaire. “I’ll drive it myself. Off you go, Firmin; harness a horse to it.”
Firmin went clumping out of the hall.
It was perhaps as well that he went, for the Duke asked what time it was; and since the watches of Germaine and her father differed still, there ensued an altercation in which, had Firmin been there, he would doubtless have taken part.
The Duke cut it short by saying: “Well, I don’t think I’ll wait to see you start for the station. It won’t take you more than half an hour. The cart is light. You needn’t start yet. I’d better get off as soon as the car is ready. It isn’t as though I could trust it.”
“One moment,” said Germaine. “Is there a dining-car on the train? I’m not going to be starved as well as have my night’s rest cut to pieces.”
“Of course there isn’t a dining-car,” snapped her father. “We must eat something now, and take something with us.”
“Sonia, Irma, quick! Be off to the larder and see what you can find. Tell Mother Firmin to make an omelette. Be quick!”